New Malware Steals Digital Currency Bitcoins, Makes Real Money

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Ever heard of Bitcoin? It's a form of "digital currency" that's
rapidly catching on across the Internet, allowing you to buy
items from and sell them to other people around the world without
having to change money or pay a middleman.

In a sure sign that Bitcoin is entering the mainstream, the first
piece of malware designed to steal Bitcoins was discovered
yesterday by two different security companies.

"If you use Bitcoins," wrote Symantec's Stephen Doherty, "you
have the option to encrypt your wallet and we recommend that
you choose a strong password for this in the event that an
attacker is attempting to brute-force your wallet open."

Bitcoins are generated by individual users' computers using
open-source software that forces the PC to compute laborious
calculations – a process called "bitcoin mining." Basically, the
more time your PC devotes to "mining," the more Bitcoins you get.

The price has plummeted from $20 per Bitcoin a few days ago,
thanks to a Bitcoin forum posting on Monday by a user who said
his Bitcoin wallet had been robbed of 25,000 Bitcoins – about $500,000
at Monday's rates. (On the same day, an anonymous donation of 25,000 Bitcoins was
reportedly made to the hacker pranksters of LulzSec.)